The Murderer Hawthorne.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 242, 30 June 1874, Page 7

The Murderer Hawthorne.

(Sydney Morning Herald, May 21.) We yesterday had an opportunity of in specting photographs of Hawthorne, aim Perry, who was hanged at Goulburn on Tuesday, and whose confession, made on the drop, declares him to bo one of the most heartless and bloodthirsty of the human tigers who have, at ione time or other, infested Australian wilds. As to his appearance, ho would be considered a harmless, respectable-looking individual. Not one in a thousand would have suspected that he lived by throat-cut-ting. Such, however, was the case, and tho information which we have been able to glean respecting his infamous career is full of instruction, and possesses morcPthan ordinaryinterest. It will have been observed that the prisoner confessed jo having murdered four men but language,,as telegraphed to us from Goulburn yesterday, is very guarded, and is quite consistent with the supposition that he attempted to perpetrate other outrages of the same description. Ho was convicted in April last of having attempted to murder Mr Slocombe in January; and about the time of his conviction, a report was drawn up by tho police department, in which were set forth the grounds of the suspicions entertained by the police authorities as to the man having committed other murders. The first case stated in that report was that of a nian named John Stevenson, who was attacked and nearly murdered in his camp, near Trunkey Creek, by a man who had travelled with him on the previous day, and who was then camped with him. While Hawthorne was lying in Goulburn Gaol, Stevenson was br night to Goulburn by summons and confronted with him. Stevenson said that the prisoner was very like the man who attacked him, but would not swear positively to bis identity. The attempt made upon Stevenson’s life was in March 1873. Stevenson is still alive, and the scars which he received in the struggle are yet visible on his person. In August, last year, the body of a Chinese was found in an advanced stage of defcompositiou, hanging from a sapling in the bush, about eight miles from Grenfell. This Chinaman had been tied or strapped up in a similar way to that attempted to be practised in the case of Slocombe. An inquest was held, and the verdict of the jury was that deceased had been murdered by some person or persons unknown. In November, 1873, the body of a man, in an advanced state of decomposition, was found fastened with straps to a sapling in the scrub near Forbes. This is the man alluded to in our telegram of yesterday as having been murdered near,, Push man’s Lead, a gold-field in the neighbourhood of Forbes, now rising into importance as the mining township of Parkes. The murdered man is supposed to have been one George Woods. An inquest was held, and a verdict of murder was recorded against some person or persons unknown. On the 15th of December, the body of John Grant was found, partly decomposed, in the fork of a tree near Adelong. The body was partly covered over with branches. An inquest Was held upon the remains, and a verdict similar to the foregoing was returned. On the 19th of January this year, the body of a man named William Baxter was found, in an advanced state of decomposition, in the bush not far from Young.-e A similar investigation took place, and a verdict of murder was arrived at by the jury. In all these cases cords or straps had been used to secure the victim ; and the police concluded from the means adopted that Hawthorne, then under arrest, was in all probability the murderer. The same plan of tying the victim was adopted ; and some four or five lengths of stout fishing line, double the thickness of whipcord, with nooses at one end, some double and some single,' were found in the prisoner’s valise when he was arrested, besides the tying that was used when he stuck up Slocombe. In order to fix the identity of the murderer in those cases, presuming him to have been Hawthorne, photographs were - obtained of the prisoner and sent to the police stations nearest to the places where the murders had been severally committed ; and by the exertions of the police, persons were found who were prepared to swear that in the cases of Baxter and Grant, the man represented by the photographs was seen in their company. Hawthorne travelled with Baxter for three days. They dined together at an accommodation house, and left together for the express purpose of reaching a certain spot where they intended to camp for the night; and it was at this place where Baxter’s remains were afterwards found. Baxter, in the presence of Hawthorne, exhibited a £lO note for the purpose of getting change, in which he failed. Persons have been found who recollect seeing the man represented by the photograph of Hawthorne alone, and that he cashed a £lO note at Wagga Wagga. It has also been ascertained that the person represented by the photograph of Hawthorne had been seen near Forbes and Grenfell, where the other two murders were committed. In the case of Grant’s murder, Hawthorne has been recognised by the photograph as the person who stayed a couple of nights at his hut before the murder. •